Karibu Tanzania

Well, it's the end of week 2 already and I'm sorry that the blogging has been rather scarce - internet isn't a big part of village life here! And I'd love to upload some more photos to show you, but the computers can't cope, so you'll just have to wait until I get back. I'm taking lots of photos, don't worry! [some now added!]

I'm settling in quite well and am enjoying the experience - a shame it'll all be over in a few weeks! Everyone is extremely friendly here - we're greeted all the time with a welcoming 'Karibu Tanzania' and I'm getting quite good at my Kiswahili greetings and responses. I've also picked up quite a bit of Kiswhahili classroom vocab as a necessity - sit down, stop, no, etc!

The teaching is going really well - the teacher Joyce is very sweet and encouraging, and leaves me to it a lot of the time. Occasionally I have to go and get her if the kids go wild though - it's hard to get a bunch of 3-year-olds to behave in a classroom in any language - they should be playing really, but there's nothing for them to play with! Some of the time we split the group up and Joyce takes the 3-year-olds leaving me with 20+ 4-6 year-olds - still quite a handful!

I've taken in a handful of books (thank you OUP and Leo!) and the kids absolutely love them! They ask for them all the time and stay in the classroom at breaktime so they can look at them. There have also been tears when they haven't been able to get one! I'm going to leave them at the school as they'll be well loved!

Bright was singing the ABC song and wanted his photo taken doing this!

I've also tried making some worksheets - things to count and colour mainly - but drawing pictures for 30 kids is a bit tiring - if only there were a photocopier! I can see why Joyce resorts to whole-class repetition, but I know they need to be more actively and individually involved so I'm trying out a few interactive activities - it's taking a while to get them used to it, but they like it and they seem to be learning! It's a bit awkward with no desks though ...

I also made some smple alphabet cards to get the kids to differentiate between capital and small letters as they've been learning by rote 'Capital A small a' and seem to think it's all one thing, and also so they can practise putting the cards in the right order - simple, but very new and exciting for them!

And I bravely took in plasticine this week - and we went into the church next door to play with it as there's more room there and the floor is concrete rather than earth. It was a big hit!

We also been singing LOTS of songs - they love it and it's a good way of keeping everyone involved. Sometime adults pass by and stop to watch from the entrance of the classroom - I just keep going. 'Sing a rainbow' is a new one that I've taught them to try to teach colours - here they are performing it!

And Mama Nay comes in every day on a voluntary basis to make the porridge - she has 8 children and her husband is an alcoholic. She's the leader of the women's group who started up the school to help the poor kids in the community. Quite a special lady!

Outside work, it's been fun, though there's not a lot to do in the evenings. I spent last Saturday in Arusha and drank lots of real coffee, and yesterday we had a day trip over to Moshi and admired Kilimanjaro. There was live music in the bar next door last night, so that was fun. And I'm off on safari for the weekend in about an hour, so more soon!!

Jambo!

Jambo! Karibu! Hello and welcome to Tanzania!

Well, I've been here a week, and I'm sorry there has been no blog until now! I'm afraid there have been a few technical problems mainly due to living in a small village, with no easy computer access at the Home Base, and then having very little time to go out in search of the village internet cafe! And when I did manage to track it down (using my best newly learned Kiswahili - 'Samahani, internet wapi?', which worked) it took me 15 minutes to get into my e-mails, the machine then crashed, and I had to start all over again! This time, I'm bravely attempting the blog, but I can't see me spending much time on it, not if it's going to be this tricky - I'm only here for 3 weeks and I've not come to Africa to get frustrated with computers!! And I don't seem to be able to load any photos, sorry! I really wanted to be able to show you what it's like here, without having to type too much, but I'll see what I can do ... and I'll try to add some photos later! [a few photos now added from Oxford]

It's now Friday afternoon, and this is my first real chunk of free time so far. It's been a bit of a mad whirl so far, and I reckon it'll be like this for the whole 3 weeks! And I thought the pace of life was supposed to be more laid-back here! It seems to be for the locals, but for CCS volunteers it's all go! I arrived last Saturday morning, after a really good flight to Nairobi - sat by 2 very interesting men (before you ask, Andrea, no they were not single!), who had both lived in Tanzania and knew the country really well - one runs a safari company (based in Burford!) and the other now lives in Nairobi and runs the World Vision aid programme for the whole of Sudan, and had previously worked in Rwanda - made my 3 weeks in Tanzania seem like a very tiny drop in the ocean! Then from Nairobi I took a 40-minute flight in a tiny plane to Kilimanjaro airport, with lovely clear views of both Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru along the way!

Kilimanjaro


Meru

We were picked up at the airport by CCS and about 40 minutes' drive later we reached the Home Base - it's in a compound on the edge of a village called Patandi in the district of Tengeru, off the main road between Moshi and Arusha, just beneath Mount Meru.

CCS Arusha Home Base

Path just outside the Home Base

Patandi is a small place, and apart from the main road running through it, comprises some dirt tracks, a collection of small shops and buildings, a very small internet cafe, and a huge amount of banana and coffee trees all around, and with small dwellings in amongst the trees around the village. There are a few bars, and handily there is one next door to CCS! There is also a massive women's community market here every Wednesday and Saturday and apparently people from as far as Nairobi and Dar es Salaam come here - it's very famous for its produce as it's one of the most fertile areas in the country - especially good for fruit and vegetables. It also has the largest collection of second-hand shoes that I have ever seen, and judging by the mud that you have to walk through here, I can see why people get through a lot of shoes! People aren't too keen on us taking photos here, but I'll try to get some before I go. I've already been to the market twice and it's a bit overwhelming, but I'm gradually getting used to the buzz!

Khanga display at the market

Market with Mount Meru behind

Market in full swing

I'm doing fine here - there's an awful lot to take in and adjust to, and as I suspected, it's a bit tougher being in a rural environment. The Home Base is nice, but I must admit I'm finding communal life a bit more of a challenge in this rural setting - it was nice in Peru to have the city to hand! And living in a small compound with about 40 people is a bit claustrophic! And I have to sleep under a mosquito net in a bunk bed and share a small room with 3 others, so that's all a bit claustrophobic too. Everyone is very nice and there's a friendly atmosphere though! I feel a bit old, as the majority of the volunteers are American students - and I'm the only British one in my group, so my accent is a great amusement! At least the bucket showers are with hot water, which is making the 6 am starts (get woken up by goats outside my window) just a little bit more civilised!! I leave for work at 7.30 trying to look professional in the obligatory long skirt - just try to imagine that!

My new 'home'

The first few days were initiation time and we started work on Tuesday. The school I started at - Vision English Training Centre - is great. It's very friendly and well organised, but there's been a bit of an issue as to whether we're really needed there as they now have teachers for each class and not many students in the nursery and primary section - about 15 in all 3 classes!! 3 of us were placed there but 2 were sent elsewhere on Wednesday, leaving me! I worked there until Thursday, getting into the swing of teaching mathematics and English to 7-year-olds, and the school wanted me to stay, also to teach French to the adults! But I felt that I really should be somewhere where there is more need and CCS agreed ...

Vision English Trainig Center

Vision primary and nursery children on my last day

So today I moved to my new placement, Moivaro Nursery School, and it's been great! I'm certainly needed more here! This is a school in a village called Moivaro, just down the road from Patandi. The village is in a very poor area, with a lot of HIV/Aids victims - Tengeru is one of the highest affected HIV/Aids areas in Tanzania. The school is for 3-6 year-olds, run by 1 young woman called Joyce who is quite shy and doesn't speak much English, but is keen to practise; it's sort of funded (in a minimal way, like supplying a room) by the church next door. There are 40 children on the books, and 28 turned up today - that was quite enough!! Joyce teaches them all together in 1 wooden room (the old church), she has 4 benches for the children to sit on, a large blackboard and 40 small ones that a volunteer donated, some chalk, a set of alphabet flashcards that she's made, and that's about it as far as I can tell! There's also a mother who comes along to make the children porridge in the morning break, and she also taught them RE in Kiswahili beforehand today.

CCS doesn't think Joyce has had a volunteer who's a trained teacher before, and I'm not sure if Joyce has had any training herself, so I'm hoping I'll be able to do some useful work with her and the children over the next few weeks! That's if I can get the children to stop hanging on to me - I must have had about 10 hanging off my arms most of this morning - they haven't had a volunteer for a while, and I reckon some of them have never held hands with a white person before - they are fascinated by the colour of my arms and also keep trying to touch my hair - and given my height, the 6-year-olds are quite good at it!

Moivaro 'classroom' - just a room, some benches and blackboard

Porridge ('uji') time

So the next couple of weeks are going to be quite a challenge I think, but I'm looking forward to it! I certainly feel like there's more I can do in the nursery school than in the private one, even though the first school was great.

And now it's the weekend, almost - I'm going to stay here and explore Arusha with a few other volunteers tomorrow, and hope to go for a walk on Sunday, if the weather is good (still rainy season here, so a bit unpredictable). Quite a lot of the volunteers have gone off on safari, so it'll be a bit calmer for a few days ...

Vision English Training Center

Sorry, still nothing too exciting here as yet; I'm still in Oxford! But I have found out a bit more about the school I'm going to be working in. CCS couldn't really tell me very much about what kind of school it was, or what exactly I'd be doing, so I've been doing a bit of internet searching. I've found a website run by a charitable foundation with a feature on the Vision English Training Center - I've added a link on the right-hand column, if you want to look at some photos. And here's the extra information:

From Give Meaning website:
"Vision School is located in Patandi Village near Arusha, Tanzania. It was founded as part of the Faraja Centre orphanage to provide educational opportunities to the many orphans of AIDS and other illnesses in this village. Since then, Vision School has expanded under the wonderful leadership of its two head teachers, Mr. Mbilizi & Mr. Dan Mtanga who at great personal sacrifice have dedicated their lives to education. Mr. Mbilizi lives hours away from his family so that he may teach at this school.

Vision School now serves students from 5 and 6 years old to some over 50 who are just now learning to read and write! Vision School's current project is to be accredited as a secondary school by the Tanzanian government. Once accredited, Vision School may prepare students for the exams that they need to write so that they may have the opportunity to attend university. This would be an incredible opportunity as nearly 8 out of 10 in this area never have the opportunity to make it to secondary school! In order to reach this goal, Vision School needs to build and furnish a science lab and a computer lab, to which this project hopes to contribute.

Education is really the key to development. Vision School is building future leaders for Tanzania and in the meantime, is empowering its students with the knowledge and skills they need to be active members of their community and educate their fellow citizens. This is such a crucial step in the fight against AIDS as well as the development of Tanzania. The warm, safe environment of this school fosters this learning experience and the students gain not only academic knowledge and life skills, but self-esteem. The students really are the heart and soul of this school and would truly benefit from your support. "

Swahili time

Oh, this is going to be fun!! Just to give you an example of what I'm trying to get my head round, here's a beginner's guide to telling the time in Kiswahili ... and apparently people don't wear watches! Am I ever going to get anywhere on time, though will it matter, I wonder?!

Swahili time
(East African) Swahili time runs from dawn to dusk, rather than midnight to midday. 7am and 7pm are therefore both one o'clock while midnight and midday are six o'clock. Words such as asubuhi 'morning', jioni 'evening' and usiku 'night' can be used to demarcate periods of the day, for example:
saa moja asubuhi ('hour one morning') 7:00 a.m.
saa tisa usiku ('hour nine night') 3:00 a.m.
saa mbili usiku ('hour two evening') 8:00 p.m.

More specific time demarcations include adhuhuri 'early afternoon', alasiri 'late afternoon', usiku wa manane 'late night/past midnight', 'sunrise' macheo and 'sunset' machweo.

At certain times there is some overlap of terms used to demarcate day and night, e.g. 7:00 p.m. can be either saa moja jioni or saa moja usiku.

Other relevant phrases include na robo 'and a quarter', na nusu 'and a half', kasarobo/kasorobo 'less a quarter', and dakika 'minute(s)':
saa nne na nusu ('hour four and a half') 10:30
saa tatu na dakika tano ('hour three and minutes five') five past nine
saa mbili kasorobo ('hour two less a quarter') 7:45
saa tatu kasoro ('a few minutes to nine')

Off to Tengeru

Welcome to the new blog!

Thought I should get writing now there's only a week to go before I head off. Though I'm not ready in any way as yet! Not sure I'm really prepared for Tanzania, though Cross-Cultural Solutions have done a good job filling me in on cultural norms, what to wear, what it's going to be like ... And although I've been trying to learn some basic Kiswahili, I just don't seem to be able to remember any of the words!

What I do know is that I'm going to be in a village called Tengeru, and there will be a Home Base to stay in - it's in a compound on the edge of the village surrounded by banana and coffee plantations apparently!

And I've just found out what my work placement is going to be - teaching English in the nursery/primary section of a school called 'Vision English Training Center and Adult Education' (doesn't dound very child-orientated, does it?!) - it's a 10-minute walk from the Home Base in another village called Patandi. When I filled in the CCS forms about what work I could do, I said I was willing to work fairly unsupervised so it's no surprise (though making me a wee bit nervous now) to find that I'm going to be taking whole classes on my own. Though there are two other volunteers working at the same school, which will be nice.

I don't have a lot of information to go on, and have been told that's how it is, and that it'll become clearer very slowly once I get there! Sounds like pace of life is going to be even slower and more laid-back than Peru ...

This is the information that CCS has sent me, and I'll let you know what it's really like once I'm settled in!

VOLUNTEER WORK PLACEMENT
Country: Arusha, Tanzania
Name of Partner Organization: Vision English Training Center and Adult Education
Head of Institution: Mr. Eminiel Mungure
Institution Mentors and Head Teachers: Mr. Danny Mtanga and Mr. Mbilizi

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE PARTNER ORGANIZATION

Goals and Objectives of school:
1. Provide comprehensive education in a variety of subjects to both children and adults.
2. Provide education and counseling services pertaining to HIV and AIDS.
3. Provide children and youth with sporting activities, games, and crafts.
4. Provide job training skills such as computer skills and training for adults.

The school is located within a 10-minute walk from the CCS Tanzania Home-Base in Patandi village and is about 300 meters from the main road in Tengeru and past the Arumeru District Hospital. The Staff is composed of 8 members, 6 men and 2 women. There are around 40 children and over 50 adults (12-50 yrs old) who attend Vision English Training Center and Adult Education.

Danny and Mbilizi are very warm in their acceptance of volunteers and will make volunteers feel right at home. Students are eager to learn and pay close attention to lessons. Plan to arrive at placement between 7:30 and 8:00 am. English classes usually begin around 9:00 a.m. so there is time in the morning to finalize preparations for class. Each day a break is taken at 10:30 or 11:00 a.m. for tea and breakfast. The break is a great time to talk with the mentors about the day’s lessons or plans for future lessons.

Duties:
CCS volunteers will be involved heavily at this placement with the task of English education. Emphasis is placed on parts of speech, increasing vocabulary, the use of prepositions, and various conversational aspects of the English language such as slang and pronunciation. Volunteers will have almost complete control of at least 2 classes which are formatted for discussion and writing exercises. Students at the school range in age from 5-50 but are divided according to their level of English comprehension and age. Classes are in session twice each day. The first session begins at 8 a.m. and ends at Noon. The second session begins at 2:00 p.m. and ends at 5:30 p.m. (Our volunteers are involved in the early session.) Volunteers should be prepared to conduct full lessons each day and provide attention to students who might be struggling in certain areas.

Classes vary in size but are usually no more than 20 students. While the school hopes to expand into the areas of computer education, HIV/AIDS education, and counseling; volunteer efforts will largely be concentrated in the area of English education. Volunteers with experience in teaching sciences such as chemistry, physics, and biology or math, civics, or geography may find those skills greatly appreciated as well. Even though some of the students are adults or even seniors, they enjoy singing and love to see pictures of your family, home and daily life.

Useful Supplies:
Please note – It is not required that you bring these supplies to your placement. Just know that many of the placements are not equipped with a large supply of resources. These supplies have been used or suggested by past volunteers, and have proven useful in doing work at this placement. Supplies are for use at your placement, but are not to be left there.

* English Teaching Aids - English books ranging in levels from beginner to about third or fourth grade (For example, books with lists of prepositions, conjunctions etc. and example sentences would help you immensely during class.)
* Picture books to use as teaching aids
* Pictures from home of family, friends, and daily activities and surroundings that students find very interesting as descriptions of life outside of Tanzania
* Boom box with kids tapes or CDs
* Newspapers, Magazines, books (useful in increasing vocabulary and reading comprehension)
craft supplies
* Red pens for marking
* A notebook for yourself to keep track of lessons
activities for children such as coloring, painting, songs, rhymes, and games that teach English

Work Attire:
Please plan to dress according to the recommendations found in your Volunteer Handbook. Women – long skirts and modest tops. Men – trousers and button down, or casual tops. Comfortable good walking shoes like canvas or tennis shoes are fine.

Desired Attributes:
* Flexibility
* Desire to empower others
* Willingness to be creative
* Ability to be proactive
* Comfort teaching and leading
* Patience